Seimas setting up task force for agreement on Astravyets N-plant

Lithuania's parliament should this week start setting up a task force that should control the implementation of the agreement among political parties to block construction of the Astravyets Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) in Belarus.

On February 10, leaders of Lithuanian parliamentary political parties agreed on closer coordination of efforts to block electricity from a nuclear power plant that Belarus is building in Astravyets, just around 50 kilometers from Vilnius.

The leaders of eight parties pledged to unanimously support a law that would declare the Astravyets plant unsafe and ban selling electricity produced in the facility on the Lithuanian market.

Lithuania says that Belarus fails to follow safety standards and international environmental requirements in building the plant, but Minsk rejects the criticism as unfounded.